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AP English Language & Composition
Summer Reading Assignment
Read two of the following books and complete the two assignments detailed below for the given texts:
On Writing Well 30th Anniversary Edition (William Zinsser) REQUIRED
AND
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot) OR
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Katherine Boo) OR
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J.
Dobner)
Put your assignments in a three ring binder with dividers labeled Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Assignment 3
(Current Events). Your summer reading assignment binder is due on Monday, August 31, 2015 for “A” day
classes and Tuesday, September 1 for “B” Day classes. NO EXCUSES!!
Assignment 1: On Writing Well (William Zinsser)
Response Log/Dialectical Journal:
A response log is an effective way to keep a record of your reading responses, positive or negative, sure
or unsure. It offers a chance to respond personally, to ask questions, wonder, predict, or reflect on the
characters, people, events, literary elements, writing techniques, or language of a text. Do not
summarize! Instead, record your textual observations. A copy of the journal is included here.
1. Generally each response about applying the techniques to your writing should be 3-5 sentences and
should include your analysis of the literary and rhetorical techniques present in the writing, attitude,
purpose or tone of the author, and relation to your writing.
2. You must include a total of 20 entries that range from the beginning to the end of the book. Show me
that you have read the entire text by responding to the book from the first to the last page. Each page of
the journal includes 5 entries; therefore you will need 4 copies of the journal.
3. Make sure that you note the page number for the quotes.
Assignment 2: Choose one of the following prompts from your book to write a two-page essay response
(minimum). Your responses must be typed in the following MLA format: Times New Roman font, 12 point
sized font, double spaced.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (ISBN# 978-0-329-85682-3)
1.
Skloot begins the book with the following quote from Elie Wiesel: “We must not see any person
as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its
own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” Analyze the
book in light of this quote. Explain the various ways in which both the scientific community and
the media are guilty of having viewed Henrietta and her family as abstractions. What are the
consequences of this perspective? How is Skloot’s different perspective evident in the way she
conducted her research and wrote the book?
2.
Analyze the ways in which Skloot’s style exemplifies the writer’s rule of “show, don’t tell” as
she develops the characters of Henrietta, Deborah, George Gey, or other key figures in the book.
In your analysis, make sure to reference specific revealing passages.
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers (ISBN# 978-1-4000-6755-8)
1.
The lives of ordinary woman are an important part of Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Do women
like Zehrunisa and Asha have more freedom in an urban slum than they would have had in the
villages where they were born? What is Meena, a Dalit, spared by living in the city? What
freedoms do Meena, Asha, and Zehrunisa still lack, in your view? Compare the experiences of
the Annawadi women and girls to the experiences of their American counterparts.
On page 235, Boo writes, “What is unfolding in Mumbai was also unfolding in Nairobi, Rio,
Washington and New York.” Research inequality and human rights violations in these cities.
Support or refute Boo’s statement using the results of your research. An excellent read is
Katherine Boo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series “Invisible Lives/D.C.’s Troubled System for the
Retarded” (The Washington Post, 1999). You can find it online at
http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2000PublicService.
Freakonomics (ISBN # 978-0-06-123400-2)
1.
Freakonomics is at heart a challenge to conventional wisdom. The authors regard conventional
wisdom as something to be wary of and questioned. Write an essay on the subject of
conventional wisdom in three parts:
 Part 1) How did the term "conventional wisdom" enter the common lexicon? According to
the authors, why is conventional wisdom comforting to people? What purpose does it serve?
Using quotes and facts from the book for support.
 Part 2) Why do the authors deem it so important to challenge conventional wisdom? What
does it add to the common discourse, and how does it illuminate the enigmatic world?
 Part 3) Analyze some of the topics from various chapters in the book. What conventional
wisdom are the authors challenging? How are they going about challenging it, and what
conclusion do they reach?
2.
2.
Juxtaposition - almost like that in a fictional work - is central to the writing of Freakonomics.
Dubner and Levitt often choose two groups - sumo wrestlers and school teachers, a crack-gang
and McDonald's - who are connected by some unseen trend or attribute. Write an essay,
analyzing three such juxtapositions. How do the authors arrive at the point of comparing these
two things? What do they surprisingly have in common? What trend does this connection reveal?
**You may find the texts at your local branch of the public library or you may choose to purchase the texts at
local bookstores or online. You may find cheaper copies at www.half.com or amazon.com.
***For each book, you will need to annotate directly in the text. Below are the instructions and a link for
student samples. I will collect your books for scoring during the first week of school. If you choose to use
library books, please use sticky notes in lieu of writing directly in the books.
Reading and Annotation Instructions
1. What does “annotate” mean?
To take notes while reading
2. What is the point of annotation?
 Annotation encourages you to read actively and thoughtfully.
 The reader gets a deeper initial reading and an understanding of the text that lasts
 Annotation provides you with a useful overview to consult before discussions or writing assignments.
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Important Caveat: The most common complaint about annotating is that it slows down your reading.
Yes, it does. That’s the point. If annotating as you read annoys you, read a chapter or other designated
section, then go back and annotate.
3. What should you annotate? The possibilities are limitless. Your annotations must include comments. I
want to see evidence of thinking. Here are some ideas about what you can annotate:
 Look for patterns and label them (word choice, sentence patterns, symbols, images, etc).
 Literary devices: themes, similes, metaphors, personification, images, foreshadowing, symbolism,
allusions, point of view, tone, mood, etc.
 Summarize key events - at the ends of chapters or sections, you could write a bulleted list of key plot
events.
 Write an alternative title for each chapter or section and explain your thinking.
 Vocabulary: circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. You
 Don’t have to write out a full dictionary definition; it is actually more helpful to put the definition
into your own words.
 Make connections to movies, news events, other texts, & your life
 The actions or development of a character. Does the character change? Why? How?
 Something that intrigues, impresses, amuses, shocks, puzzles, disturbs, repulses, aggravates, etc.
 Mark & comment on passages you think are especially significant, powerful, or meaningful.
 Express agreement or disagreement.
 Make predictions.
 Note anything you would like to know more about or do not understand.
 Intriguing sentence patterns, a key moment in the plot, a bit of dialogue that reveals character, clues
about the setting, passages that reveal theme, etc.)
Scoring Rubric
A Grade: Annotations are reflective, purposeful and thoughtful. Annotations are spread evenly
throughout the entire book. Annotations clearly reveal your thought process. **At least 30 annotations
per 100 pages have been made**
B Grade: Annotations are evident throughout most of the text. Annotations lack reflection, purpose or
thoughtfulness. Do not clearly reveal your thought process. **Some annotations may also be missing or
superficial.**
C Grade: Annotations are sporadic, incomplete and/or do not reveal evidence of effort, thought or
purpose throughout the text. **A significant number of annotations may be missing or superficial.**
Grades Lower Than a C - will reflect a lack of reading, possibly in skipped sections or random
annotations of insignificant material. **More than half the annotations are missing or superficial**
Please see the article, “The ‘How-to’s’ of AP Lang” at
http://how-to-surviveaplang.blogspot.com/p/how-to-annotate.html?_sm_au_=iVVJbHbtqjrstNDr
for examples of what annotations should look like.
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Dialectical Journal
Text Title: _________________________________________ Author: ________________________________
Reference to the Text
In the space below, copy direct quotations, key words, details,
and/or summaries from the text that stand out to you. Make
sure to include the author’s last name followed by the page
number in parentheses.
“Quotations from the text”
Your Response or Interpretation
“Applications to my writing”
How can I apply this to my own writings or to my
style?
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Assignment 3
Current Events Journal (CEJ)
Adapted from an assignment by Danny Lawrence, AP Instructor, Winston-Salem, NC
Objective: The Current Events Journal will improve students’ summarizing, analyzing, and grammatical skills.
This assignment will keep students abreast of current events and breaking news, and will help students on the
Argument portion of the AP exam. Lastly, this assignment will require students to familiarize themselves with
MLA style bibliographic citations.
Assignment: You will find a total of 2 non-fiction newspaper or magazine article to analyze. The
articles should be about current events or issues. Use at least two different sources (i.e. not all the pieces
should come from the same newspaper or magazine). DO NOT USE SOURCES SUCH AS USA
TODAY, PEOPLE, SEVENTEEN, BLOGS ETC. You will need to attach a copy of the articles to each
review that you write. The following are ideas of sources to use for these articles:


Choose a magazine article, editorial, commentary or essay from reputable issues-based
magazines such as Newsweek, Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, New
Republic, Forbes, The Economist, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Harper’s, and Scientific
American, etc.
OR
Choose a newspaper editorial or commentary/essay from reputable newspapers such as The New
York Times, The National Post, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The State, The HeraldJournal, The Post and Courier, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald, The Los
Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Each article you choose must have been published in the current month or the previous month, but no
later. During the school year, I will assign a theme for the week (for example, “This week, you must
read an article about politics/the environment/education,” etc.). When I do this, I will let you know
ahead of time.
1.
2.
3.
On the top line of the paper, you will include a MLA citation for the
magazine/newspaper article.
a.
This assignment should be in MLA format—student name, teacher, class, date info.
On the top half of the paper, you will write a summary of the article you have read. You must
include a small quote from the article in your summary (be sure to “set up” the source). A
“small” quote can be words or parts of a sentence.
a.
DO NOT SPEND MORE THAN HALF THE PAGE ON THE
SUMMARY!!!
On the bottom half of the paper, you will write commentary. Comment on the content of the
article (what the author has to say) or the form/style (how the author says it).
a.
If you comment on the content, you may be defending, challenging, or qualifying the
author’s claim/point/thesis/interpretation;
(i) Some questions you might want to think about/comment on:
a. What are some of the author’s best arguments? What makes them good?
b. Which arguments or points made by the author do not make sense to you and
why?
c. Is the author using logical or emotional appeals to get you to agree with him or
her?
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b.
If you comment on the author’s form/style, you may be commenting on the
author’s diction, syntax, tone, imagery, organization, appeals, etc.
(i) Some questions you might want to think about/comment on:
a. Is there any connotative language?
b. What is the writer’s attitude toward the subject and what it the article gives
you this idea?
Grading: Each Current Event entry is worth four points. Below is the assignment rubric.
Summary
1
MLA formatted
citation with more
than 6 errors
Vague summary
with little use of
examples or quotes.
2
MLA formatted
citation with 4-6
errors
Clear summary with
some use of
examples and
quotes.
Commentary
Commentary which
reveals little insight
or originality.
Interesting,
commentary which
reveals some
insight.
Citation
Conventions
Poor control of
conventions.
Many errors.
Limited control of
conventions.
Some errors.
3
MLA formatted
citation with 1-3
errors
Clear, concise,
detailed summary
with use of
examples and
quotes.
Interesting
commentary which
reveals insight and
originality.
Good control of
conventions.
Few errors.
4
MLA formatted
citation with no
errors
Clear, concise,
detailed summary
with eloquent use of
examples and
quotes.
Rich, interesting,
exemplary
commentary which
reveals insight and
originality.
Excellent control of
conventions.
No errors.
AP English Language and Composition testing information:
https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-english-language-and-composition
MLA Style Format
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/